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Essex County's Spectacular Great Salt Marsh

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Essex County's Spectacular Great Salt Marsh ESSEX COUNTY’S SPECTACULAR GREAT SALT MARSH LECTURE TRANSCRIPT Speaker: Doug Stewart Date: February 6, 2016 Runtime: 51:45 Identification: AL01 ; Audio Lecture #01 Citation: Stewart, Doug. “Essex County’s Spectacular Great Salt Marsh”. CAM Video Lecture Series, February 6, 2016. AL01, Cape Ann MuseuM Library & Archives, Gloucester, MA. Copyright: Requests for perMission to publish Material from this collection should be addressed to the Librarian/Archivist. Language: English Finding Aid: Description, Finding Aid: Victoria Petway, April 29, 2020. Subject Lists: Anne Siegel, November 9, 2020. Description An audio recording at the Cape Ann MuseuM in Gloucester, MA of the February 6, 2016 program by lecturer and freelance Magazine writer Doug Stewart presenting an illustrated lecture on Essex County’s spectacular Great Salt Marsh. The Marsh stretches from Cape Ann to New Hampshire and is a biological engine whose nutrients sustain fish stocks and bird life. It also protects shore towns from flooding and storm surges, but despite its necessity, the Marsh is poorly understood and under-appreciated. Stewart will explore the Great Marsh’s past Essex County’s Spectacular Great Salt Marsh – AL01 – page 2 as valuable real estate for farMing salt hay, its uniQue success over Much of the past century in dodging the nation’s swaMp-filling Mania, and its uncertain future as sea-level rise accelerates. Photographs by Dorothy Kerper Monnelly of the Great Salt Marsh were on view during the lecture. Transcript Kate LaChance 0:00 Good afternoon, everyone. My naMe is Kate LaChance. I'M the PrograM Coordinator here at the Cape Ann MuseuM. First things first, this turnout is amazing. And we want you all to coMe back. So, please pick up a Membership brochure on your way out. This truly was a comMunity collaboration today. Doug Stewart is a resident of Ipswich and was recomMended to Me by one of our docents, John Huss. We also have photography on view today by Dorothy Kerper Monnelley, another resident of Ipswich and collaborator with Stewart on “Between Land and Sea, The Great Marsh,” which I saw soMe of you flipping through on the table outside. We're all familiar with the Marsh. But I'M so happy to have Doug here with us today to delve even further into its value, and how we can value it. So I hope now that you'll help Me in welcoMing Doug Stewart to the podium and we can get started. Doug Stewart 1:10 I’m just gonna hold the microphone in my hand so I don't knock the coMputer on the ground. Can you hear Me okay? Audience 1:18 No. Doug Stewart 1:21 No? Okay. Do you think it’s off? Essex County’s Spectacular Great Salt Marsh – AL01 – page 3 Kate LaChance 1:24 I can turn it up more. Doug Stewart 1:27 Okay. How about now? Is that sounding better? Okay. 1:32 Well, as Kate said, I live in Ipswich. I'm a freelance magazine writer and I had the wonderful opportunity to be asked by Dorothy Kerper Monnelly to write an essay in her book of photographs, “The Great Marsh” published about 10 years ago. I wouldn't say that I was her collaborator, it's Dorothy's book. She's a spectacular photography—photographer. You can see some of her pictures here. She has been called the Ansel AdaMs of AMerica's coastal wetlands. And a big part of what is iMportant here is salt Marshes, and especially our Great Marsh, which extends froM here to the New HaMpshire border and actually beyond, has often been very Much Misunderstood and underestiMated. And raising the profile of the Great Marsh and learning to appreciate its scenic beauty and its ecological value would go a long way toward helping protect the Great Marsh. And the Marsh is iMportant not only for wildlife, and not only for its scenic splendor, but also as it turns out, it's a vital buffer protecting human comMunities in coastal Massachusetts, froM coastal storms, which are poised to becoMe more freQuent and More severe with climate change. This is part of a big research effort that's going on right now. And I also wrote an article last year for National Wildlife Magazine about this research project that Congress has authorized $3 Million for with Hurricane Sandy funds. So it's all part of the same subject. Now, the Great Marsh is an area of salt Marsh that is the largest salt Marsh in the United States north of Long Island. And it's considered to be the Most pristine salt marsh that still remains in the United States. 3:40 Essex County’s Spectacular Great Salt Marsh – AL01 – page 4 It is a place that really looks very much like it did 1,000 years ago, which you can’t say about Most parts of the Atlantic or Pacific coasts, Mainly because of huMan development. And you know, it's an aMazing geM we have here. It's nearly 20,000 acres of not just salt Marsh, but Marsh islands, barrier beaches, and estuaries. That is our true wilderness within comMuting distance of Boston. And it's definitely worth appreciating. 4:22 And even though it has looked this way for 1,000 years, that doesn't Mean it's going to look like this in 1,000 years. There are now a number of threats to the Marsh—even this Marsh, pristine as it remains for the Most part. And that's soMething that scientists now—environMental groups are looking at. This is a section of the Marsh. You can see the Parker River which divides Rowley and Newbury. And one of the threats to Marshes generally, and the Great Marsh, is encroaching developMent, but also pollutants froM huMan activity. And, you know, once upon a time in the United States, there was so Much salt Marsh that it covered an area the size of California. And now drastically, San Francisco Bay has lost 95% of its salt marsh. Galveston’s lost 85%. So again, it's another reason we should really value what we have. 5:27 So you can probably recognize this is Venice. And you Might also recognize the Grand Canal was once a tidal creek going through the salt Marsh. And this is one of Many cities that have been built on Marshes around the world. Every continent in the world has had Marshes, except for Antarctica. And often people looked at theM as you know, virgin real estate to build on because it's accessible and flat. And if you put fill on top, you can put a city on it like Amsterdam, Buenos Aires, large parts of Boston, Philadelphia, and New York were also built on marsh. This is an illustration from Manhattan, which a book that came out a few years ago. And on the left is an iMaginary photo illustration of what Manhattan seen froM the north looking south Might have looked like 500 years ago, if you had drone photography then. Plumes of sMoke would be Native AMerican caMpfires. You can see some salt Marsh in the foreground on the left, and there would have been lots of Marsh on the Hudson River and elsewhere. Essex County’s Spectacular Great Salt Marsh – AL01 – page 5 And this is a photograph on the right actually, unlike so Many Marshes that have been obliterated by development here, and I'M afraid I don't know if this is the Bronx or HarleM. I think it's HarleM, Maybe the HarleM River in the foreground— the Marsh is still there. I mean, it's severely degraded. It's really a mud flat, but it hasn't been completely topped. 7:00 But Most Marshes have disappeared. And one reason is Marshes do have a pretty bad reputation. They're generally like other wetlands. They're considered a swamp, and swamp is a pejorative word. This is an early 20th century illustration—I really took illustrations froM the internet and I apologize to their creators. This is an illustration of John Bunyan’s classic Puritan work, Pilgrim’s Progress. And this is the slew of the spawn that started to show the way soMe people thought of wetlands in the Middle Ages and later, for so often. A wetland was a place—it was a low area where noxious liquids froM settleMents would flow and collect. And these are treacherous, useless, ill-smelling places that would trap you if you weren't careful. Like these sinners, this would be a metaphor for what happens to sinners. The guy on the right is clawing his way out. The guy in the middle, I think, is probably done for. And this may be the first detailed map of the New England coast published in 1624 by John Smith, of Pocahontas fame. So this was published four years after the pilgrims caMe, possibly SMith did his navigating even before that. 8:21 And let Me just, I need at least three hands here. I want to read a Quote froM John Smith's book, which is aiMed at his English audience where he's trying to build up interest in North AMerica. And he said he saw no unwholesoMe marshes when he explored the Hudson River and coastal Virginia. And those marshes he did see were more profitable than hurtful. He thought he had to reassure people that these weren't treacherous slews of despond. And one thing that's interesting here is that Many of the first perManent settlements in New England were actually built in places that have very expensive Essex County’s Spectacular Great Salt Marsh – AL01 – page 6 salt Marshes, like Ipswich, Duxbury, Plymouth, Saugus, Newbury, of course, and Portsmouth.
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